Dian Hanson, the Queen of Sex, on Trump, Censorship, and the Future of Porn

With the current administration’s
penchant for executive orders and rumors of another pornography study on the
horizon, Dian Hanson is more relevant than ever. No one knows more about the
ins and outs of how politics affect sex than Taschen’s “Sexy Book Editor” (dream title
alert). Hanson made her career editing porn magazines like Leg Show, Oui, and Juggs, and she’s the mastermind behind The Big Butt Book, The Big Book of Breasts,
and The Big Penis Book, among
other risqué titles put out by the beloved art book publisher. We sat down with
the expert to chat about America’s fluctuating views on sexuality and what we
might be in for in the era of Trump.

THE STANDARD: You’ve been
an editor of pornographic content since 1976. What era in the past is most like
ours today, sexually and politically? Are we on a new frontier or are we
repeating ourselves?DIAN HANSON: Going back to
the first of its kind, Nixon, of all people, called for the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography after the fall
of censorship laws in Europe. That commission found no danger. I’ve followed
the fluctuations, and it has risen and fallen with Republicans and Democrats.

After the
confused period where we had Ford, everything swelled. Jimmy Carter admitted to
Playboy that he “had lust in his heart.” Deep Throat came out, and everyone went to see it. We went up on this
cloud that said it was all OK. Then we got Reagan, and it all went in the other
direction. Porn was labeled as awful. We are entering into a Reagan period
again. We see how much Trump craves the love that was poured on Reagan.

Mr. Trump
has come up with a “brand new idea”—he will have a presidential commission
study obscenity to find out what it’s doing to our youth and families. Whatever
the new commission finds, you’re not going to get the general public behind it.
Marriages rely on access to sexual stimulation. People want their pornography,
and they don’t want you to mess with it.

What
interests you most about the particularity of people’s sexual preferences?Someone’s life will not
predict their sexuality. They can be conservative in every other way, and their
sexuality will still be set at however it was formed before their fifth
birthday. Mr. Pence is wrong that you can change people. What he should do if
he really wants to prove that his gay conversion therapy works is go through
the program, but reversed—converted to be gay. Since he knows it works, there
is no issue, because we can convert him right back to being straight.

"Maybe let’s rename it '50 Shades of Orange.'"

I was reading about your praise of the first-wave
feminist movement and how the newer evolutions are really harsh toward male
sexuality.Young women seem very
intimidated by male sexuality, and I don’t understand it. Men just want women
who see sex the way they do, and they want to talk about it without being chastised.

Do you think the trend of BDSM has any effect on
our political ebb and flow?Women’s
most common sexual fantasy is to be dominated in the bedroom. They want to be
strong in their careers, and they want to have power in other aspects of their
life. That should be completely OK. I don’t think a desire of sexual submission
hurts women. It’s a game that everyone wants to play. I didn’t like the
conversation that happened when 50 Shades
of Grey came out, making it feel like this is a new theme for women. This
has always been there. It isn’t because we are in more powerful positions.

I think
the most horrifying thing is that we have these 50 Shades of Grey women looking at Trump and saying, “That’s what
we need, a strong man.” They are confusing the bedroom with the boardroom. They
see a guy who is a strong “daddy” and very dictatorial. It’s arousing desires
to be controlled in their personal lives, and they’re confusing this with good
leadership. We saw an outpouring of misguided women, white women—53 percent of
white women voted for Trump—who saw him as a strong daddy, and I have a feeling
they all had a copy of 50 Shades of Grey.
Maybe let’s rename it 50 Shades of Orange.

How do these women
justify Trump’s treatment of women?I’ve got an example that gives me a clue. When I
lived in New York, everyone saw Clinton as this sort of dud…until it came out
that he was cheating with these women. Suddenly, among my female friends, I was
hearing people call him sexy. He didn’t sound like a hick—he sounded like a hot
guy. Men, alternatively, were the ones pushing forward with how horrible it was
that he had cheated on his wife. A lot of women, for whatever reason, are
attracted to men who are total cads, womanizers. Maybe it’s because they are competitive
with other women, or maybe it’s some subconscious ovarian pull toward a
dominant man. They hold some type of appeal.

Where do you see porn going?Porn is becoming more personal. It’s becoming
more and more amateur, and it makes it more interesting and human. Maybe I’m
just optimistic. For all the years that people have warned me that we would
only want to look at porn because it’s there, people ultimately want to fall in
love and be loved in return. That doesn’t mean they don’t want to stray
sometimes, but for the most part, there’s been no change. We want love. We want
relationships. We’re all stodgy at the core.